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A colleague who is F22 pilot for the Virginia ANG had honor of flying a Phantom at Eglin. He flew the aircraft we had at the reunion. Here is the F-22 pilot’s thoughts on flying the F-4: I flew your jet a couple days ago (see attached). I had a little trouble getting the engines started, so I climbed out and shoveled some more coal in the back; after that she fired right up. Ground ops were uneventful, although I couldn’t figure out why the cockpit smelled like body odor, Jack Daniels and cigars…and that was BEFORE I got in it! By the way, what’s with the no slip crap on top of the intakes, it’s like you have permanent icing conditions due to that spray on rhino truck bed liner on top of the aircraft. It’s no wonder you needed so much coal (I mean thrust) to get airborne. Take off scared the sh*t out of me. I lit the burners at brick one and 2 miles and 45 minutes later we were ready to rotate. After barely clearing the tree tops, the gear came up and I climbed away at a VERY impressive 2 degrees nose high. In case you don’t remember, “Trim” is your friend in the F-4 (pretty sure it’s also a good friend on the ground too). Once I got her up to speed and a moderate altitude, we were ready for the G-Ex. Two G-turn’s later and I’m sinking like a rock…the F-4’s energy seems to bleed like Holyfield’s ear in the Tyson fight! After the G-Ex it was time to do a little Advanced Handling Characteristics (AHC) and by “advanced handling” I mean the same crap the Wright Brothers were doing back in 1903…just trying to keep it airborne. The jet flies much like my old man’s station wagon used to drive…You turn the wheel (push the stick) a few inches and nothing happens, then all of a sudden the steering kicks in, inertia takes over, and all HELL breaks loose! You’re pretty much along for the ride at that point and only gravity has a real say in your lift vector placement. “Checking 6” was really quite easy…. because you CAN’T! Scratch that off the list of “Sh*t I need to do to keep myself alive in combat today”. Breathing, however, was surprisingly easy in the F-4 when compared to that of the F-22 (thank you Lockheed)…LOX works, who knew! I think I may have burned my legs a bit from the steam pouring out from behind the gauges. Where are my 6 mini-flat screen TV’s, I’m lost without my HD jet displays (editors note: actually, I’m an analog guy stuck in a digital world too…I really do like the “steam driven” gauges). After the AHC, I decided to take her up high and do a supersonic MACH run, and by “high” I mean “where never lark nor even eagle flew”; but not much higher, a foot or two maybe. I mean, we weren’t up there high-fiving Jesus like we do in the Raptor, but it was respectable. It only took me the width of the Gulf of Mexico to get the thing turned around while above the Mach. After the Mach run we dropped to the deck and did 600 kts at 500’; a ratllin’ and shakin’ we will go…. I though all the rivets were going to pop out. Reference previous station wagon analogy! Very quickly we were out of gas and headed home. As I brought the jet up initial, I couldn’t help but think that the boys who took this thing into combat had to have some pretty big brass you know whats! My first F-4 landing was a little rough; sub-standard really by Air Force measure… but apparently “best seen to date” according to the Navy guys. Did you know that there’s no such thing as an aerobrake in the F-4? As soon as the main gear touches down, the nose comes slamming down to the runway with all the force of a meteor hitting the earth….I guess the F-4 aerobrake technique is to dissipate energy via denting the runway. Despite an apparently “decent” landing, stopping was a whole different problem. I reached down and pulled the handle to deploy the drogue chute…at which point a large solid mass of canvas, 550 cord, metal weights and cables fell out and began bouncing down the runway; chasing me like a lost puppy and FOD’ing out the whole runway. Perfect. I mashed down on the breaks and I’m pretty sure at this point the jet just started laughing at me. Why didn’t you warn me that I needed a shuttle landing strip to get this damn thing stopped? All kidding aside, VERY COOL jet! Must have been a kick to fly back when you were in Vietnam! Just kidding!

BTW Prince Saleem needs more cigarette breaks and 12 more 87 rides. He's on the 2 year UPT program. Also he won't make formal brief Monday because he's got some Tinder dates in Dallas on Sunday and he doesn't want to drive his Maserati back in the dark. He may make 3rd go if Allah wills it. As-salamu alaykamu vanilla face.

Since when has the AF cared about later?

Word. So here's another story for ya. So there I was as an attached flyer, watching the flt/cc give the cats the formal release spiel. Some shit went down in San Antone I wasn't privy to the weekend prior, and they got straight up Shawshank'd into "flight room CAP". Nobody goes anywhere without an alibi, and pack a lunch. So fast forward to the next day right around 1100ish and I'm about to brief my kid when I see the flt/cc go over to a couple of studs motioning and arguing with Prince S. on the center table: flt/cc: "Where you think you're going man?" Pr. S: "Uh, Silver Wings zzir" flt/cc: "No you're not, what did I tell all of you yesterday about bringing in lunch with ya?" Pr. S: "Oh yes zzir, but zzir, you see...I don't have a wife, so I don't have anybody to make me lunch...." The collective room: I had to bury my face to contain my laughing outburst. I'll never forget the pregnant pause from the flt/cc. Truly didn't see it coming. It was truly a #thuglife moment, and the sincerity and nonchalance with which he said that was Epic... and the day I realized this goddamn place had jumped the shark. Fast forward more years than I care to remember or admit to, and I feel like the Houston WTF reporter. 50% of my daily grind is spent on this ME nonsense, but somehow we're all tapped out of 38 domestic production up in here though, but DTS ain't gonna unfornicate itself either. And now this mickey mouse business about zero-to-hero? Holy Mary and Joseph on a donkey. Like the man said:

Pretty severe G forces associated with FNGs trying to not-crash the BUFF. EW passes out every time.

I just don't understand the scorpion love, you guys getting paid? It looks underpowered (from reading the specs, A-10 sort of power) and just butt ugly. If we are going to train the next gen of fighter pilots, we need something that will blow the doors down when you go AB.

I found this picture of him in his mother’s basement....

T-45 or T-50, already exist, supply chains in place.

Gonking further on this, WTH would be come of the T-1 Phase III if this dumpster fire of a COA becomes policy? I don't see AMC, AFSOC, AFMC, etc... ok with deleting half of the training for some of their future pilots and accepting that likely very large and expensive training bill to get them to the experience and proficiency level required to complete their MDS qual. ACC for that matter is likely to get shafted with a sizable bill also, again who the f actually thinks this is a good idea?

https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/ads-b https://airfactsjournal.com/2013/01/ads-b-101-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-care/ https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/equipadsb/ins_and_outs/ https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/adsb/faq/ https://txtav.com/en/journey/articles/articles/adsb-out-explained

The problem is they haven’t tried retention yet. If I have to read another stupid article about the AF offering a “massive” bonus increase, I’m gonna die. They keep touting that $455k bonus without saying that it’s over 13 freaking years, when you’ll be working for half of your base pay for the last 5 years of that contract... yeah, what a deal. Push the bonus up to $100k/yr if you care about retention, AF. Because we all know all of the QoL initiatives are complete bullshit and will not happen.

Totally achievable. The concept was proven by Iron Eagle 1-69 30 years ago. Doug Masters retired and is now a GS staff weenie pushing the program. Following F-35 MQT you still need to go back to USAFA for your bachelors tho.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the Lightspeed Zulu's are not TSO Certified. The Bose A20's are. Nice, readable post, by the way.

Yes, a none CAF guy can teach an SP to land and keep them from hurting themselves. As several posters above have pointed out studs are getting to IFF/B-course and they can't think or even fly tactical. This isn't a pissing contest. It's a matter of experience. Can a heavy guy go learn to fly a -38, yes. Have there been successful cross flows before, yes. Is it more likely a stud will be better at thinking/flying tactical if he flies with IPs who have been doing it for the last at least 4+ years, or from someone that did it for 5 months at PIT (rhetorical)? On top of that there is a different mentality from students when they're taught by CAF vs. non CAF IPs. If you doubt this ask any -38 IP, or SP for that matter, the kind of growing pains studs go through after moving from 99.69% non CAF IPs in T-6s over to the -38 side. Also, the majority of heavy guys coming back as -38 IPs right now are being given additional rides/instruction in TI because it's very much needed in some cases.

No one on this side ever argued that standing for the anthem makes you a patriot, much like me shaking your hand when you offer a handshake doesn’t necessarily make me a nice person; but were I to swat it away then I’d be kind of a douche.